Get the latest info about photo organizing, photo editing, workflow, scanning and new products to help you keep your family photos organized.
I deal with the same challenges and frustrations you do. I'm always searching for, and trying to keep up with the latest photo technologies and tips, so let me do all the hard work and sort it all out for you.
Adobe just updated Lightroom Classic with some interesting new features. I’ve had a few clients call me as they were confused about some changes in the way the tools in Develop mode now display. If you wish to set up a session to go over these new tools, or anything else, let me know and we can go through them.
Here are the basics of the new changes.
Read MoreOn July 26th of this year, Apple will be discontinued something called My PhotoStream. My PhotoStream was a feature that iPhones used before there was iCloud to sync photos and videos from your iPhone to your computer. Its now basically obsolete so nothing to worry about unless you might be still unknowingly using it to transfer images from your phone. That might be the case if you are not logged into your iCloud account.
Read MoreLightroom – Information is everything
One of the most common things I come across when I first see my client’s Lightroom catalog is this generic display on their thumbnails, displaying absolutely nothing of importance. So one of the first things I do when helping to set up a catalog for a client is to show them how to display important and helpful information in the Grid view of their catalog
Read MoreOn Wednesday, August 17, 2pm Eastern Time, 11am Pacific Time, I will be doing a webinar with Cathi Nelson from The Photo Managers titled: How to De-Dupe Your Photos & Why It Matters.
Read MoreI just launched, in partnership with The Photo Managers™, a new online course to help all you Mac users identify and remove the duplicates from your photo collection. And the good news is that you can save 25% by ordering before July 31. Regularly $59, but now on sale for $44.25.
PhotoSweeper is one of, if not the most powerful photo duplicate removal applications you can get for your Mac system.
Read MoreWhat you'll learn in this apple training: Apple Photos and iCloud is an easy to use and maintenance-free photo-system for your iPhone and Mac computer, but if it isn’t set up correctly from the beginning you can end up with a real mess and even risk losing photos. It would be nice if Apple did a better job of explaining how it works and how to set it up, but they don’t…
I have been working with my personal clients over the
I’ve always wondered how people get through wars and other frightening times that can occur during one’s lifetime. My mother and father lived through the depression and then later WWII. My grandmother was a medical practitioner treating German Soldiers during WWI and then later had to endure the Spanish Flu which came just as the war was ending. My God what a time!
Last week I found myself, like most of us, cycling through a range of emotions: fear, hope, hopelessness, despair, denial and as much acceptance as I could muster. As both the parent of a teenage boy and the son of a very at-risk mother in an asssited living, every decision I find myself facing carries many potential consequences. I get absolutely exhausted just trying to navigate what used to be the simplest daily decisions in my life.
But I don’t really have to tell this to anyone do I?
Read MoreI recently became a regular contributor to the popular website Sixty and me.
Read my latest article here - Have you become the designated family photo historian?
Read MoreI recently placed a post-it note on my computer screen that asks – What do you want your photo collection to look like in ten years?
Although it was meant mostly as a reminder to me, it's now a question I ask my clients as well when starting a new project with them.
In this age of massive digital accumulation, it is something worth thinking about, especially if we believe a family photo archive has value to us, not only in our lifetime, but to those we might consider passing it down to in the future.
Apple Photos has a trifecta of features – Live Photos, Burst Mode and HDR, that while offering some convenience and perks, really are part of a strategy that long-term results in massive subscription fees from ever-expanding iCloud accounts. OK, that sounds pretty paranoid, but it’s essentially true.
Apple has released these cool features over the years, which can unquestionably elicit a few oohs and aahs, but ultimately eats up enormous amounts of storage space while the unaware user has no idea why it’s happening. When you think about the relatively short period of time that iPhones, and in particular these features, have been around, it is staggering to think what 10 years, 20 years and more will bring in terms of these growing storage eating features that keep getting rolled out.
Read MoreIts so hard to talk about Capture Dates without getting super excited, so I will just calmly start at the beginning. OK, there’s actually nothing at all exciting about Capture Dates, but if you are working with digital images or scanned prints/film you do need to understand them a bit as they can either make your digital life a lot easier or very confusing.
The Capture Date is the date and time that a photo is taken.
Read MoreI recently had a chance to visit the fire zone in Agoura and Malibu, this was the wildfire called the Woolsey Fire that scorched parts of LA and Ventura Counties in November of 2018. It burned almost 100k acres, destroyed over 1600 homes and killed three people. Almost 300,000 people had to evacuate their homes, and it was many days before they could return because of fallen power lines and the danger from falling trees and branches. Most were lucky to return to intact homes, but many were not.
Read MoreDepending on what part of the country you live in, natural disasters can strike, and strike fast. While here in California we are bracing for another torrid wildfire season (and it’s always earthquake season), the Gulf States are readying themselves for a hurricane season that seemingly gets more intense each year. Other parts of the country can experience tornados, floods and Nor’easters.
Natural disasters can be horrific, but fires and floods in your home can also cause terrible damage and wipe out most, if not all belongings.
So of course you grab your kids and pets, but what is next on the list, that’s if you even have the time? Many people grab the family photos. But as we are living in the age of digital, the question has to be asked – do you know which hard drive to grab? And what about your older prints and albums?
Read MoreHow many photos will you have in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? Kinda scary right? And what about videos? Yikes!
Aside from the holidays, summer is the time of year we take a lot of pictures. Taking lot of pictures is great, but taking so many that you don’t even want to look at them, let alone edit them, is not OK. Also ballooning the storage on your phone is not fun, so let’s focus on quality not quantity this summer. Here are a few ways to do that.
Read MoreSounds like the diagnosis of a patient, right? Well like the human body, a photo collection is really a system of connections, and if all is not well with that system, it doesn’t work quite the way it should.
As a professional photo organizer, when I see a client for the first time, I actually do a diagnosis of their photo collection to see how healthy it is. I’ve seen some pretty sick photo libraries in my time, but thankfully no terminal cases so far.
So the question becomes, what makes up a healthy photo collection? Basically I am looking to see how it works in these six areas:
Is it organized?
Are images findable?
Are images accessible?
Is the collection safe?
Can images be shared?
Is it endurable?
The Apple Photos app exists both on your computer as a desktop application, and as a mobile app on your iPhones and iPads.
The way Apple Photos typically works is it uses your iCloud account to sync your photos between your computer and your mobile devices. Apple calls it Hand Off, the idea being that if you take a photo on your iPhone, it will then sync (or hand off) that photo up to iCloud, which then syncs it down to your computer (and other devices you may have).
When you edit a photo on one device, it updates that photo on all other devices. And when you delete a photo on one device it also deletes it on all other devices, this is very important to remember.
Read MoreThe Holidays are upon us and that means we are going to be taking a lot more pictures than usual. All good, except when the storage on our phones or laptops starts to max out and we have to scramble to free up space. Here are some Apple Photos settings that can help you avoid that mess and get you set up the right way.
Read MoreOne of the questions I get asked the most is “When I’m using Apple Photos, what is the best way to share my photos with others?”
You could use the Apple Family Sharing plan, but that will entail a bit of a set up, plus a subscription fee for iCloud storage (This would be in addition to any iCloud account you may already have in your name).
Some folks have asked me if they could have other family members sign into their iCloud account. The problem with that is everybody who signs in will not only have their photos shared, but also their Contacts, Documents and whatever else they have backed up to iCloud as well. Not a good answer!
The easiest way and cheapest (its free) way to share your photos is to use iCloud Photo Sharing. This is how it works.
Read MoreI came across Lyn on a website listing alternative photo cataloging apps. I had been looking for a simple, desktop-based photo management program to offer as an option to my clients. Aside from Apple Photos, there is a trend towards cloud based image platforms such as Google Photos that offer no desktop management at all. Lots of my clients like working on their desktop and don’t like being forced to do all their work on the web. Also, with so much hacking going on, I think it’s asking for trouble to be completely reliant on web based platforms. Read whole article...
Read Moreemail - peter(at)fotoflowsolutions.com phone - (three one zero) - 312-6640 All photos ©Peter Bennett - All Rights Reserved
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